rozzy the flirt

we made a quick trip up north to sac-town, to visit family, this week. we went to see traces with the fam, it's our second time seeing them, just spectacular! we saw them while living in nyc, i mean... i would go see it again...so good!

& of course, we caught up with our pals too.

when we got home, a couple friends from LA were driving up to SF and stopped by at the famous  "hotel cole" in fresno for the night;)
they had a dog, which i thought was not really going to work with our cats, but surprisingly rozzy decided "trixy" was hot and started waving his tail feathers in front of her.

there was no fight, no nothing. trixy just chilled & rozzy flirted.
coop was not ok with any of this though, ha, we had to lock him in a separate room. poor guy, just doesn't like other animals at all.

spring

weather is the best right now. spring. 60-70degree, breezy, sunny. ahhh
we've been going to our neighbor's yard to pick oranges and tangelos. it's so crazy, there are about 10 or more trees of citrus, & no one wants 'em!
i've been juicing about 8-10 of them everyday, adding juice from a fresh coconut & sometimes the actual coconut meat too...with some strawberries & blending. i made that the other day, and drank a huge glass of it in about 10 seconds.  imagine a (light) orange/strawberry creamsicle...
anyway. since it's warming up outside, i am leaning towards more smoothies and juices and less heavy greasy foods.

there is an asian grocery market near our house, and they sell fresh young coconuts in bulk! i got a cleaver too ($6), and know how to open those suckers with just one hit.
the smoothie above is:

1 banana

10 strawberries

2 mangos

handful of chard and spinach 

a couple ice cubes

coconut juice+coconut mean

=

yum.

little paper animals brought to ya by my niece and nephew. 

i also finally bought us some smoothie glass straws. don't worry i know they are super nerdy, my husband reminds me of this every time i give him one, ha. but i like drinking out of straws and don't like being wasteful. also, these glass straws have a lifetime warranty...soooo yeah.

another favorite, is fresh orange/tangelo juice with just the juice of a coconut (& sometimes a tiny bit of ginger juice)so good, and so good for you!

los angeles

hi guys

i started missing LA, so we packed our bags, said sorry to our cats & went 3hrs south for the weekend. two days really isn't very long,  i was only able to see a couple friends & stopped by a few of my favorite places. (which included cafe gratitude & the spice station!)
(wearing my favorite dress from our shop. looks like something rachel comey might design)

the weather was 70 degrees, as per usual. there was a marathon that weekend, & it seemed like everyone else decided to stay home, which meant no traffic for us! i miss LA sometimes, but most of the time i am content being here, in fresno. plus, now, everything there seems a little more special, because we can't go there everyday.

(below is the best coconut curry raw soup i've ever had. i will try & replicate it this summer, when it's too hot to eat hot food)

we are at "that age" when everyone we know is having babies. we're not planning on  babies anytime soon, so it's fun to hold everyone else's.
& what's up with this generation's babies...they're so cute!?

the first evening in LA, i made dinner for a few friends. it was indian themed, of course (lentil dahl, sweet&spicy cauliflower, kale salad & date poppers!) ...recipe to come (...lies).
there were no leftovers, btw. that means it was either that good, or i didn't make enough food!

here's a crappy phone pic of some of them pretending like i'm not taking a photo.
at least it captured a nice moment... (right guys?)

thanks for looking! see ya lata!

garden time

anyone out there trying to garden this summer? if so, what are ya growing?

i'm going to try, i really don't know anything about gardening though. i have a big yard, so it would be criminal not to at least try!
i usually buy some seeds for a vegetable, then try and find blogs that have tips on growing it...

there is this story from years ago, about my mom, i guess she planted some tomatoes, and a weed started growing there.  she wouldn't let my dad pull the weed, b/c she thought it was a tomato plant. i've heard this story being told several times, kinda making fun of my mom, but i think it's totally  unfair! she didn't have google, or even a library she could look up any information! her mom didn't grow tomatoes... so how would she know?

anyway.

i've also started a compost (w/o worms) & it's working! worms end up in there anyway, thanks to my niece & nephew. they ome over and pick up big rocks & pull worms out of the ground & toss them in there for me :)

i guess this is my "before" picture of our back garden area.  we'll see what happens in a few months!

also, my naughty kitties ate about 6 of my tomato seedlings.  they sit right next to them in the sun, and i guess they must have gotten bored one day & decided to eat a few of them?

hanging around

my neice and nephew. may be some of the cutest people...ever?
they are a big part of what swayed us to move to fresno, in the first place.

everything around here is turning into spring.  we made a pretty bouquet out of flowers from our neighborhood bushes/trees.
there was a pretty tulip tree in someone's yard, & the kiddos insisted we get some of those too.  nate had to knock on our neighbor's door to see if we could have a couple (while i hid, lol).

big sur (road trip continues)

big sur, one of my favorite places on earth?

on our way to big sur, we stopped at casa de fruta, definitely stop there if you're driving by. pretty views plus fruit, nuts & dried fruit snacks. (i picked up some guacamole flavored pistachios!)
also, our friend greg, introduced us to geocashing, so we did a little geocashing on our trip (does anyone else do this?!)

we stopped at "our spot," with the bixby in view for some photos. just doesn't get old.

we rented a cabin, and took it easy, chatting, napping and kindling a fire. we reserved a spot to go night bathing... on a cliff, in a hot spring at 1am...it was so peaceful...and magical, really unexplainable, you'll just have to go & find out for yourself, someday.

morning! (lol my hair the morning after the baths)

when going to big sur, you don't really need a guide, just find a spot to park, and go for a hike, ya can't go wrong there!
aside from night bathing, i will suggest getting lunch or drinks at nepenthe. a sweet restaurant, on the edge of the earth, just spectacular.

that's all for our road trips with our LA/NYC/UK pals, this time ;)

baby chick

have i mentioned i want to get a couples chickens someday? well i do, as pets.
they lay an egg a day! i don't eat eggs, but nate does & i'm sure my sister would be happy to get fresh eggs too.

we went to the cherry avenue swapmeet market (fun/weird market in fresno), and i wanted to take one of these guys home.
 
kinda sad, all in a big box like that...i guess at least they have each other

day trip to yosemite!

if you look up directions to yosemite, it'll probably say to fly/drive to FRESNO then get a car and drive to yosemite...so yeah, fresno is kind of a big deal, ha ha.

we had visitors recently. pals we made while living in new york. now one of them lives in LA, the other is moving to London & one still lives in nyc...(but hopefully for not too much longer ;) )

anyway, they came over, i made indian food & we just hung out around the house. the next day, after a hearty breakfast (ok i'll tell ya, tofu scramble with breakfast potatoes & avocado toast) we took off for yosemite. a quick (&beautiful) 1hr drive got us to the south entrance of the park.

we also learned how to put chains on our wheels ;)

after what seemed like a 10mile hike, we made it to the giant redwood trees! i read that some are over 3,000 years old... pretty cool.

there were some breathtaking views too along our hike.

we were heading for the grizzly giant trees, but "0.8 of a mile" (thru the snow would feel more like 5 miles) just seemed like a little longer than we wanted to hike (plus, the sun was setting & we still needed to get back to our car).
our new yorker pal wasn't quite dressed warm enough for snow hiking :)
style over function, that's usually my moto!

as soon as the snow melts, we're heading back up there! you can take a tram up to the top.

anyway, that's all for yosemite, this time.
the next two days we spent in big sur, i'll tell ya all about it later this week, so come back.

thanks for looking guys!

we're at the alameda flea today!

if you are near San Francisco today, come see us at the Alameda Point Antiques Faire! we're back at it, driving there like a couple of lunatics in the middle of the night :)
nate said yesterday, that if we didn't actually have fun doing this, none of this would really be worth it.

also, I just made this flyer on my phone ! which is pretty cool..not that it's any good or anything but jeez i love techmology!  & obviously I like fonts.

we will be in space EE20

see ya guys later!!

ps. i was searching which flea markets were the best in the U.S. & many list the Alameda flea as #1! no wonder i love it so much!

#TBT

throw back thursdays. (i know you're probably reading this on friday, yeah...)

ok, why is it that everyone "back in the day" looked so cool?
love the outfits, the hair...their faces. love to see photos of my parents smiling. (they're ukrainian, & just for some reason people don't smile as much over there, as they do in america. so when i see them smiling in photos, i like to think they were just really happy in that moment)

will our kids look back at our photos & think everyone looked cool? for some reason it's hard to imagine they will!

first photo:
my dad with my two (twin) uncles & a friend, camping.
(my dad is wearing the plaid shirt)

left photo : my parents camping.
right photo: my parents are in the middle...with my mom's cousins. i guess that day, my grandpa (on my dad's side) had kicked my mom's cousins out of the house (who were visiting from our of town), b/c they were dressed like hooligans. (lol)

below photo: mama & papa

those two made this one : (me)

below: my older brother & sister. ( i have a younger sister too, but for some reason don't have a pic of her this time.)

left: my mama, i think pre-kids.  right: oh yeah, that's me again :)

ok. well thanks for looking! & i'll leave ya with one last photo of me... being, well... me. overwhelmingly loving little girl.  poor girl with the bow... actually i should try and find her now, i think my mom said she lives in finland...

ha ha i'm sure she's dyyying to see me again.